Ethereum soars to new all-time high above $440

The price of ether
hit an all-time high of $445 Friday morning, according to data
from Markets Insider.

The digital currency is up more than 5,200%
year-to-date.

The price of ether, the scorching-hot rival to bitcoin, soared to
an all-time high above $445 Friday morning, up more than 9%
against the US dollar.

The new high follows a record-setting day for the cryptocurrency
on Thursday when it broke through $400 for the first time since
June.

Ether has flown under the radar since June, trading close to $300
until the beginning of November when it began to tick up. It is
up more than 5,200% year-to-date.

Friday's record followed a bullish prediction about the digital
currency by Michael Novogratz, the famed hedge funder turned
crypto-investor.

“Just in the last few days ethereum has started to move, and I
actually think it’s going to put a new high soon,” Novogratz told
Bloomberg News on
Tuesday.

He also predicted the price of ether will hit $500 before the end
of the year.

“There’s a lot of positive things happening in the ethereum
ecosystem,” Novogratz added.

Hundreds of companies - including JPMorgan, Santander, and UBS -
are members of the Enterprise Ethereum
Alliance, a collaborative group seeking to leverage ether's
ethereum blockchain for purposes outside the world of digital
currencies.

Ethereum is also the blockchain on which companies run initial
coin offerings, the cryptocurrency-based fundraising method,
which this year have raised more than $3 billion for tech
startups.